Extracts from
Roots of consciousness
ISBN 0-394-73115-8 (Original Edition) 1-56924-747-1 (Revized Edition)
By Jeffrey Mishlove
Several related findings have been reported from the UCLA radiation
field photography laboratory. One study attempted to observe the
Kirlian fingertips of pairs of individuals, holding their fingers
close together, but not touching, as they stared into each other's
eyes. Frequently they found, for no apparent explanation, that
one of the fingertips in each pair would practically disappear.
(See Plate 14, thirdright.) One of the subjects was a professional
hypnotist, and it was repeatedly discovered that he could blank
out the fingertips of any one of a number of partners. In a rather
striking experiment, one subject was asked to visualize sticking
a needle into her partner, who was known to be afraid of needles.
The Kirlian photograph of their fingertips shows a sharp red line
darting out of the aggressor's finger toward that of her imagined
victim whose emanations appear to be retreating! (See Plate 12,
bottom). On the other hand, the photographed corona of two individuals
taken while they have meditated together typically has shown a
merging and uniting of the two individual coronas. (377)
Sometimes when two persons were able to generate feelings of hostility
towards each other, the corona between their fingers would abruptly
cut off, leaving a gap so sharp and clear that it became known
as the "haircut effect." In some instances a bright
bar, like a barrier, would appear between the two photographed
finger pads. (See Plate 14, lowerright.) Further studies with
family groups engaged in family therapy were conducted. Group
photographs were taken with the finger pads of each member of
the family. Typically one member of the group, generally the son,
would not photograph at all. Other photographs in this study strongly
suggested to the researchers that Kirlian photography could provide
valuable insights into the emotional reactions between people.
(373 379)
In order to explain these uncanny photographic events, researchers
are drawing upon the efforts of Kurt Lewin (1890 - 1947) to apply
the concepts of physical fields to the study of human personality.
One of the unique characteristics of Lewin's theory was using
of diagrammatic representations of internal and external personality
interactions. The following diagram is one Lewin used:
The individual is described graphically by the quality of psychological
environment (or aura) around him. Person b, for example, is one
with a thicker boundary. The outer world has little influence
on the lifespace and viceversa. The lifespace of person a is more
open and expansive. (330)
Lewin has often been criticized for the unjustified application
of physical concepts and terminology to the realm of personality
where they did not belong. It was claimed that his diagrams were
an attempt to appear scientific without using the requisite controls
and measurements of science. Furthermore, it was difficult for
these critics to see what these diagrams had to do with the "real
world." Now however, Moss' studies and the work of other
researchers suggest that Kirlian photographs can be read almost
as if they were Lewin diagrams of personality fields! (381) This
finding, if it stands the test of further scrutiny, will provide
an enormous theoretical breakthrough-far beyond what Lewin himself
ever actually suggested.
This type of experience suggests that the psychic aura consists
of precise conceptual images (theosophical mental body) as well
as more nebulous emotional colorings (astral body). The astral
body then relates to the instinctual levels Of the Freudian unconscious-sex,
aggression, love, and sublimation. These are the powerful emotions
that motivate man's behavior. To pursue the analogy further, the
mental body corresponds very nicely to the world of archetypes,
and thoughtforms symbols described in the analytical psychology
of Dr. Carl Gustav Jung. Jung himself stated many times that the
archetypal world- although it exists within the mind-should be
thought of as objective reality. It resembles Plato's realm where
ideas themselves exist as visible thoughtforms. The famous medium
Eileen Garrett provides an example of the perception of thought-forms:
One sees lines and colors and symbols. These move, and one is
wholly concentrated on them and their movement. I say "symbols"
here for want of a better word. I frequently see curving lines
of light and color that flow forward in strata, and in these strips
or ribbons of movement there will appear other sharply angled
lines that form and change and fade like arrow heads aimed and
passing in various directions. And in this flow of energy that
is full of form and color, these arrow heads will presently indicate
the letter H. Each line of the H will be an independent curve,
and their combination will not remain identifiable for very long.
But I shall have caught it; and holding it suspended in awareness,
I continue to watch the process develop and unfold. Soon a rapidly
drifting A appears in the field of concentration, and then, let
us suppose, an R; and presently I have gathered the word HARRY
out of the void, either as a proper name or as a verb temporarily
without either subject or object. Whether it is actually a noun
or a verb will depend upon the context of the perception as a
whole.
This process is infinitely rapid. But I have achieved an alertness
of attention, of awareness, of being, which is equal to this rapid
flow of immaterial line and color and symbol, and out of this
alertness, poised above the flowing stream of differentiated energy,
I gather a message with a meaning-a message which has come to
my consciousness out of the objective world as factually as the
reflected light from the distant Moon may reach my consciousness
by way of my sense of sight. (332)
The following descriptions of thoughtforms and the mental body
comes from Annie Besant and the Reverend Leadbeater:
The mental body is an object of great beauty, the delicacy and
rapid motion of its particles giving it an aspect of living iridescent
light, and this beauty becomes an extraordinarily radiant and
entrancing loveliness and the intellect becomes more highly evolved
and is employed chiefly on pure and sublime topics. Every thought
gives rise to a set of correlated vibrations in the matter of
this body, accompanied with a marvelous display of color, like
that in the spray of a waterfall as the sunlight strikes it, raised
to the nth degree of color and vivid delicacy. The body under
this impulse throws off a vibrating portion of itself, shaped
by the nature of the vibrations-as figures are made by sand on
a disk vibrating to a musical note-and this gathers from the surrounding
atmosphere matter like itself in fineness from the elemental essence
of the mental world. We have then a thoughtform pure and simple,
and it is a living entity of intense activity animated by the
one idea that generated it. If made of finer kinds of matter,
it will be of great power and energy, and may be used as a most
potent agent when directed by a strong and steady will....
Each definite thought produces a double effect-a radiating vibration
and a floating form. The thought itself appears first to clairvoyant
sight as a vibration in the mental body, and this may be either
simple or complex....
If a man's thought or feeling is directly connected welsh someone
else, the resultant thoughtform moves toward that person and discharges
itself upon his astral and mental bodies. If the man's thought
is about himself, or is based upon a personal feeling, as the
vast majority of thoughts are, it hovers round its creator and
is always ready to react upon him whenever he is for a moment
in a passive condition....
Each man travels through space enclosed within a case of his own
building, surrounded by a mass of the forms created by his habitual
thought. Through this medium he looks out upon the world, and
naturally he sees everything tinged with its predominant colors,
and all rates of vibration which reach him from without are more
or less modified by its rate. Thus until the man learns complete
control of thought and feeling, he sees nothing as it really is,
since all his observations must be made through his medium, which
distorts and colors everything like badlymade glass.
If the thoughtform be neither definitely personal nor specially
aimed at someone else, it simply floats detached in the atmosphere,
all the time radiating vibrations similar to those originally
sent forth by its creator. If it does not come into contact with
any other mental body, this radiation gradually exhausts its store
of energy, and in that case, the form falls to pieces; but if
it succeeds in awakening sympathetic vibration in any mental body
near at hand, an attraction is set up, and the thoughtform is
usually absorbed by that mental body. (333)
To this picture of the mental body, Yogi Ramacharaka adds a further
description of the mental world as such:
Places and localities are often permeated by the thought of persons
who formerly lived there, who have moved away or died many years
ago.... The occultist knows that this thoughtatmosphere of a village,
town, city, or nation is the composite thought of those dwelling
in it or those who have previously dwelt there. Strangers coming
into the community feel the changed atmosphere about it, and,
unless they find it in harmony with their own mental character,
they feel uncomfortable and desire to leave the place. If one,
not understanding the laws operating in the thought world, remains
long in a place, he is most likely to be influenced by the prevailing
thoughtatmosphere, and in spite of himself a change begins to
be manifest in him and he sinks or rises to the level of the prevailing
thought....
In the same way dwellings, businessplaces, buildings, etc., take
on the predominant thought of those inhabiting them or who have
dwelt in them. (334)
The existence of the mental world implies a view of nature that
incorporates meaning as well as mechanism. We are no longer dealing
with blind forces bouncing aimlessly throughout the universe.
The substance of the mental world is embued with purpose. Minds,
or monads, are constantly emitting radiation of an intelligent
nature. Every thought may be thought of as an active spiritual
force.
It is on this level that we need to consider some of the more
extreme findings of astrology. Electromagnetic radiations and
solar storm activity can certainly account for certain mass phenomena.
But we cannot expect electromagnetic effects to bear much relationship
to the individual horoscope. Nevertheless, data of this sort exists
which must be considered. Most of the significant studies to which
I am referring are the result of many years of experimentation
by Michel Gauquelin in France. His findings do not support the
type of astrology relating to sun signs that you normally read
about in popular books, newspapers, and magazines. (In fact, there
is really no good data I know of which offers evidence for the
astrological value of sun signs, moon signs, or any signs at all.)
What Gauquelin was able to discover was a weak relationship between
the position of planets relative to the horizon and success in
certain professions. While, with a few notable exceptions, Gauquelin
did not predict his results in advance, his findings are consistent
with the astrological interpretations of Ptolemy and Kepler. These
results are independent of normal seasonal or circadian factors.
Some of the most significant evidence for the physical effects
of thoughtforms comes from an experiment conducted by James L.
Hickman with Uri Geller, using highvoltage photography. The experimental
procedure was the following: The experimenter and the observers
arbitrarily chose a geometric figure. With the lights off, the
experimenter guided the subject's right forefinger tip to the
film surface while carefully feeling for any foreign material
that might influence the photographic image. One or two control
exposures were taken. Then the experimenter lowered the subject's
fingertip to another portion of the film, again feeling for foreign
material. The experimenter and observers concentrated on the target
image and, on the subject's command, the high voltage supply was
activated. The exposed film was placed in a lighttight box and
the lights were turned on. The lower image in the above figure
indicates that the triangular target was correctly received by
Geller and somehow made to appear on the photographic image. While
successful results were obtained on several occasions and also
with other researchers, the experimenters are cautious in interpreting
their data without further investigation. (Courtesy Henry S. Dakin,
HighVoltage Photography, 1975.)
The above figure was taken using the same procedure as described on the
previous page, except that the subject, Uri Geller, was asked to try to
transfer mental energy from his finger to a wristwatch lying on the film
surface. (Courtesy of Henry S. Dakin, High-Voltage Photography, 1975.)
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